Hello folks… I was diagnosed type 2 three years ago and told to take metformin. It was a big low in my life for me. Yet another tablet to take for the rest of my life. I was 59 years old and just recovered from a 3 x CABG. I was also told that I’m obese… I was, still/am on 3 hypertension meds and statins. So I wondered if I could do something about it. The diabetic nurse said lose weight. So I found out about this thing called KETO, and went straight into it blindly… Within three months I was not a type 2 and did not need metformin anymore; however I’ve been told they will never take me off the diabetic register. I’m what you call a “Type 2 diabetic in remission”, so I get free eye scans and my feet checked every year. I also have arthritis, uveitis, some auto-immune problem and get fatigue often. This screams out Insulin Resistance, so I was hoping the KETO diet will help pass these afflictions and get me sorted. Sadly just under a year into this way of eating things in my body started to go weird. I had lost 3 stone, but felt tired in the afternoon and never felt alive as so many people on KETO say. As I have hypertension I was very wary of taking electrolytes. I ate a lot of kale, avocados, meat, Himalayan salt etc, so I did not feel that electrolytes where missing from my diet. My hypertension stayed stable but never changed as so many people on KETO say that they do not need so many meds for high blood pressure anymore. I started weeing a lot at night (disturbed sleep) and got bad lower back ache, however the arthritis in my shoulder had nearly gone. So at that point in my life I decided to eat normally.
This was a mistake even though my interrupted sleep had stopped and the pain in my back had gone. Unfortunately within 4 months I’d put a stone back on and my arthritis came back with a vengeance. So I was worried I’d end up as T2 again. This time round I a purchased a KetoMojo and jumped back into the Keto diet armed with keto electrolytes. By day 20 things seemed to be fine I was experimenting with different amount of salt and how it was affecting my blood pressure and how these electrolytes where affecting my wellbeing. By 30 days I was not happy at all with the results. I felt I had taken some very cheap speed , I was literally buzzing and seeing red spots at night in the dark (quite scary) . So I stopped taking the extra salt and the electrolytes. I waited a good week before I made a big pot of beef curry with tons of kale and spinach with loads of beef bullion, (it was very Keto), there was enough for a week. By this time I’d been on the keto diet 30 days and slowly going into becoming fat adapted, the ketomojo meter showed me I was between .5 and 1.5 for the past 3 weeks. So I started to live on this curry and felt fine, until my blood pressure went ballistic. Last Thursday 16th April my BP went into hypertension stage 3, 201/111. I got quite scared and after a few days of it sometimes going down to 157/97 I decided to go to A&E. Weather I did the right thing I don’t know as there this Covid thing around. Anyway they gave me extra meds which only bought my BP down slightly. I spoke to my GP the next day. He just said carry on with the extra meds. But I knew it was not going to work. One extra tablet will not bring ones BP down that far. So last night my BP went 200/110 and at that point (it was 1:30am) I wondered what would happen if I ate some carbs. I rummaged around and found an old jar with lentils in it so I made a small Dhal, ate 100 grams of it and to my horror, surprise, quite pleased within half an hour my blood pressure dropped to my normal of 144/84. WTF is that all about then??? I’m now not in Keto and I’m quite scared to go back into it… I can’t find anything on the Keto diet causing such a rise in blood pressure. On the ketogenic forum there are loads of post on BP going slightly high but not dangerously high as my readings. There is nowhere for me to go or ask. I think it’s got something to do with insulin resistance, but how do I control this problem?